MR. McCLELLAN: All right, good afternoon, everybody. I wanted to
run through some of the President's day, and just give you a little
color on the day, as well.

The President, this morning, before he left the hotel, met with
some civil society leaders. It was probably about a half hour or so,
the meeting. And there were 17 people there, if I counted correctly, a
diverse cross-section of Russian civil society leaders, including
representatives of human rights groups. In fact, you had a
representative from the Helsinki Commission there, which the Ambassador
referred to as the oldest civil society organization in Russia. You
had representatives from labor, advocates for the free press, Russian
Red Cross, representative of people with disabilities, representative
or an advocate for abandoned children, someone who is involved in
election monitoring, and then an HIV/AIDS activist, as well.

The President viewed this as another opportunity to highlight the
importance of civil society in democracies, and to thank them for their
work, and also to hear from them. The President met individually with
each one, and then he spoke to them as a group, and he talked about how
he is here to celebrate the defeat of the Nazis and fascism, and honor
the courage of those who served and sacrificed from that generation,
but he's also -- this is also a time to remember the lessons of the
past as we look to the future. And in that context, he talked about
how we must always stand up against tyranny and how freedom is
universal.

And he talked about the importance of human dignity and rule of law
and minority rights, and people worshiping freely, and people being
able to express their views without fear. He talked about how a
vibrant society is one in which government recognizes and honors
universal truths, but he said society itself honors universal truths
through civil society. And he talked about how we support the civil
society leaders in their work, and continue to offer them our
encouragement and support in their work. And he talked about how in
our own country we're constantly working to overcome the wrongs of our
past. And I think some of that you've heard in his remarks over recent
days.

And then he talked about the good relations he had with President
Putin, and he talked about how his strong personal relationship with
President Putin allows him to work in an effective way and enables them
to work together in a constructive way.

And then he heard from three of the representatives, one from --
represented the human rights organizations, one that represented the
media, and one that represented relief organizations. And they talked
about, obviously, their organizations, and thanked the President for
the support from our embassy and from USAID. And then the President
kind of closed by talking about how strong, independent institutions
that operate outside of government really help build strong
democracies. And they touched a little bit on the role of faith-based
organizations in society, as well.

Then I talked to -- the President and Mrs. Bush attended the
parade, and staff was there, too, watching the parade. And I talked
tothe President afterwards about some of his thoughts. And he talked
about how it was a really dramatic moment -- he thought the
architecture around Red Square was magnificent, and that the music
played by the military bands was powerful. And then he talked about
the old Soviet-era trucks that drove by with the World War II
veterans. It was very moving. And he talked about what a proud moment
that was for those veterans.

Then he and Mrs. Bush went to the lunch with the other world
leaders, and they were joined at lunch right by them by -- at least in
their area were three veterans, one American, one British and one
Russian. And the President got an opportunity to visit with some of
the other leaders, like President Hu and Prime Minister Koizumi and
others, as well.

Then he went to the embassy, and thanked our diplomatic staff and
the Marines for all that they do on behalf of America. And then
following the remarks to the embassy staff, the President met privately
with 10 American and 10 Russian veterans of World War II. And he
thanked them for the opportunity to come by and say hello. He told
them that they set an example for his generation and future generations
through their courage and sacrifice and willingness to face tyranny and
defeat the Nazis and defeat fascism. He talked about how the example
that they set will inspire a future generation of leaders. And he
thanked them on behalf of a grateful nation. And again there, he
talked about his relationship with President Putin and how important
that is, and then he said, God bless you, to all of them.

The President, before that, had walked around and met individually
with the veterans. And he came upon this one Russian veteran, an older
gentleman who had a lot of medals on his coat. And he didn't speak
English, he was speaking to the President in Russian. And there was an
interpreter there. And this veteran talked to the President about how
he had been in Berlin, and he had a coin from Berlin, and he wanted to
give it to the President, this old coin. And the President insisted --
he said, no, you keep that, give that to someone in your family. And
he said -- he thanked him for his courage, and then he embraced the
veteran and hugged him.

Q A coin from --

MR. McCLELLAN: A coin from Berlin. He had been in Berlin. It was
a touching moment; the President was very touched by it. I think Eric
got a photograph of it, so we'll try to do a photo release of that
moment, as well.

Let's see, what else do I have. Just looking ahead to tomorrow,
we've got the -- well, tonight we've got the tour of Old Town Tbilisi,
and then tomorrow the President will have his meeting with President
Saakashvili, and then the press avail following that. And then he's
going to have a roundtable with the civil society leaders there. That
will be pool coverage. And then he meets with the speaker of
parliament. Then he'll make the remarks in Freedom Square, and we
expect a pretty good size crowd there, from Tbilisi.

And in the remarks, the President is going to herald one of the
world's newest democracies. This is an opportunity to mark the
progress that Georgia has made on the path to democracy. Georgia is a
beacon of liberty for the world, and the President will talk about that
in his remarks. Before there was the purple revolution in Iraq, and
the orange revolution in Ukraine, and the cedar revolution in Lebanon,
there was the rose revolution in Georgia. And that has been an example
of courage -- the rose revolution is an example of courage that has
inspired many around the world. And the President will talk about
that.

Another point the President will make -- he'll talk about how new
democracies -- how important it is for new democracies to meet certain
responsibilities in order to sustain freedom. And Georgia is moving
forward on a number of reforms. We're very supportive of those
efforts. They're moving forward on economic reforms, they're moving
forward on democratic reforms, they're moving forward on cracking down
on corruption.

And I think the President will talk about that, but he'll also talk
about how free societies have a responsibility to build lasting,
democratic institutions. And those lasting institutions are rule of
law, full and equal rights for minorities, freedom of press. And he'll
talk about how we stand with Georgia as they move forward on moving
those institutions, but that building those institutions are really key
to sustaining freedom. So that's really the focus of his remarks
tomorrow in Freedom Square.

Q Scott, when the President says to the civil society people in
Moscow, and again in the speech tomorrow in Georgia, Tbilisi, we stand
with you, what specifically does he mean? Is there anything
specifically that you guys are going at the White House?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we support efforts around the world to move
forward on institution building, to put in place lasting democracies.
And we've worked very closely with Georgia. The President has a great
relationship with President Saakashvili. And we support efforts in the
Middle East, we support efforts in the former Soviet republics, and we
will continue to -- I think the point he's making is, we will continue
to support you as you move forward on that path of democracy. There
are lots of ways that we help and support those efforts; there are NGOs
that help, as well.

Q Your description of the speech tomorrow sounds very much like
Riga, but I assume it's not going to be the same speech. So how might
it be different? What are some of the different things he's stressing
and different points he's trying to make?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Riga was looking a lot at the lessons of the
past, as we move forward on the future. And I think this is really a
forward-looking speech. I said he was going to talk about how Georgia
is a beacon of liberty for the region and for the world. Freedom is
the future for all, and I think that's one of the things the President
is highlighting in his remarks tomorrow.

Q Will he talk about the U.S., as he did in Riga? Will he talk
about our own sort of path to democracy, with slavery, and that type of
thing?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think one thing he'll talk about in the
remarks is that sustaining freedom is difficult; it's not easy. And
certainly we know that -- we do know that from our own history, but
that there are many around the world that are there to support you as
you move forward. And there are many lessons we have learned from our
past. The focus is really forward looking, it's not really, as I said,
looking at the past, as he did in Riga. And so it's really focusing on
what they're doing right now, and they're making important progress.
And we've been very supportive of those efforts. But they are a young
democracy. The rose revolution just occurred in 2003. They are
working to address these issues now, and we want to do all we can to
support them, and really point out that they are serving as an example
by moving forward on those reforms.

Q Scott, in the lunch today you mentioned that he talked with Hu
and Koizumi. Who did he sit with, and what kinds of conversations --
were there substantive conversations?

MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, there were some veterans there. I
just know -- we talked briefly about it. I don't know who else was at
the table. I'll see if I can get you that information. But I wasn't
there for the lunch, so --

Q Did he have any sort of mini-summit with Hu and Koizumi to
talk about North Korea? Did they chat about that at all?

MR. McCLELLAN: I mean, I know he had the opportunity to visit with
different leaders. I don't know how substantive those conversations
were. But I'm sure they brought up some issues that are on both our
minds, both countries' minds. But I just don't have any more on that,
because I wasn't there for the lunch.

Q The Russians refuse to take their bases out of Georgia, and
that's what led to Saakashvili not coming to this event today in
Moscow. Does the White House have any position on Russia keeping their
bases in Georgia?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know that they've refused. I mean, I think
Russia has stated that they are committed to moving out of those
bases. We support the negotiations that are going on.

Q On North Korea, there were some discussions -- there were some
comments out of China and South Korea about the six-party talks,
encouraging North Korea to come back to the six-party talks, and some
signals from North Korea about a greater willingness to do so. What is
the reaction to that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we've been in close contact with our partners
in the region to get North Korea to come back to the six-party talks.
And I think all nations involved in the six-party talks are sending the
same message to North Korea, that the six-party talks are the best way
forward to resolving this matter and to achieving a nuclear-free
Peninsula. And so we appreciate the efforts of our partners in the
region. We want to see North Korea come back to the talks, so that we
can talk in a serious way about how to move forward and achieve a
diplomatic solution.

Q When it comes to the test, though, you have mentioned that the
U.S. has robust deterrents that are available. What are they?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that Secretary Rice has talked about
our deterrence capability in the region. I think that that's well
known. I think our focus is on the diplomatic front and getting North
Korea back to the six-party talks. The President has talked about
moving forward on missile defense, as well. But our focus is on
getting them back to the six-party talks. We've made it clear that no
one is coming in with any preconditions to those talks, that we have a
proposal on the table, and we want to move forward on that proposal in
a serious way. So that's really what our focus is, is on getting them
back to the six-party talks.

Q How many people in the square tomorrow, Scott?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't want to put a number on it, but I heard
it's going to be a pretty large crowd.

Q Did the President say anything at all --

Q Security is pretty dicey in Georgia. Are you guys worried at
all about the open-air speech?

MR. McCLELLAN: We have great confidence in the security
precautions that are taken for this trip and all our trips. We
wouldn't be going if that wasn't the case.

Q Is there any contradiction in all of his talk about open
societies and freedom and free speech, and yet every city we go to is
virtually locked down when we come through it, mostly for security
reasons? Doesn't it send a message that he's coming through
locked-down cities?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think I'd view it quite the same way. The
President is really looking forward to this trip for each stop along
the way. It's been a really good trip so far, and the President is
looking forward to finishing the trip in Georgia. I think it's an
opportunity for people in these areas to hear directly from the
President of the United States, and for us to herald the great things
that they are doing to move forward on the path of democracy. Like I
said, I expect a rather large crowd tomorrow, and I think people
understand the necessity of the security precautions that are taken,
particularly when we're in a time of war.

Q I've got a question on Iran. Did the Russians say or offer
anything new on Iran in the context of the recent vows by the Iranians
to begin enrichment-related activities very soon? Will they be with us
at the Security Council if it goes that far?

MR. McCLELLAN: Steve talked about it last night, in terms of the
context of the meeting. They did talk about Iran -- I think Steve
pointed out that Russia has been supportive of the efforts that are
going on by the Europeans. We continue to support the efforts of the
Europeans to resolve this in a peaceful and diplomatic manner. Iran
made a commitment to our European friends that during the negotiations
that they would suspend all their enrichment and reprocessing-related
activity. If they decided to take a step to restart some of those
efforts, that would be contrary to the commitment that they made to the
Europeans. So we want to continue to support the Europeans in
negotiations.

And Iran -- we have been skeptical of Iran's intentions for quite
some time, and that's because Iran's past -- Iran has a past where they
hid their activities from the international community. And that's why
it's important that there be some objective guarantee that Iran is not
developing a nuclear weapon under the cover of a civilian program. And
the objective guarantee is no reprocessing or enrichment-related
activity. That's a way to provide a guarantee that their intentions
are not to develop a nuclear weapon. So we think that's very
important. Europeans have said that they're prepared to look at the
next step if Iran were to some reason take such a step and pull away
from the negotiations.

Q Did Putin, in any fashion, indicate that he would stand with
the U.S., and presumably with the Europeans, at the Security Council if
Iran goes back to enrichment activities?

MR. McCLELLAN: Steve talked about that last night at the
briefing. He talked about how that's kind of a hypothetical at this
point, but that Russia has been very supportive of the efforts by the
Europeans to resolve this matter in a diplomatic way.

Q One more on today's event. The President today was the first
President to sit in that square for this kind of event. What else did
he say about that --

MR. McCLELLAN: To see a military parade.

Q To see a military parade, but Soviet songs were sung, and the
Soviet flag marched by. What significance did it have for him, to be
sitting in that square --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think it's the way I described it. I visited
with him about it, and the way I described it at the beginning of this
gaggle is the way I would describe it. Like I said, the most moving
part of the parade was when the old Soviet-era trucks were coming by
with the World War II veterans in them, waving and holding roses. That
was a -- being there and watching it was --

Q Any squeamishness about the hammer and sickle flag, and
goose-stepping soldiers and the symbols of that era?

MR. McCLELLAN: No. I think part of this trip has been to
celebrate the sacrifice of all those who helped to defeat the Nazis and
to defeat fascism. But it's also been a way to look at the lessons of
the past, as we move to the future. And I think that's really been the
focus of the President's trip.